Preface

Summary

I became an interpretivist as I wrote this book, which is a confession I often imagine would disappoint the authors of some of the resources I drew on to design my research methodology (see Hatch, 2002, p 12). To say that I am an interpretivist is to make a claim about the assumptions I make about the nature of the social world we all inhabit. Specifically, I think that each individual sees the world in their own unique way, informed by their own personal experiences and history (Hatch, 2002, p 15; Schwartz-Shea and Yanow, 2012; Bevir and Blakely, 2018). In my view, social reality is the manifestation of the meanings of the people who created it (Bevir and Blakely, 2018, p 19). It follows that understanding social reality requires interpreting the meanings behind the actions of historical actors rather than the discovery of natural laws. Thus in this book I am interested fundamentally in the ‘culturally derived and historically situated’ (Crotty, 2009, p 67) meaning that Bougainvilleans and Solomon Islanders attribute to their post-conflict schooling experiences.

To say that I became an interpretivist is to say that I once made different assumptions about social reality, assumptions which were much closer to positivism. That shift leaves open the possibility of a logical misalignment between my theoretical claims about transitional justice and schooling in Bougainville and Solomon Islands and the project design, methods and analysis of the data. As I read years ago, I am risking the production of research ‘that flies in the face of theoretical integrity’ (Hatch, 2002, p 12). My reply is that for most of the ten years it took to write this book I was a student. To have settled on propositions about the social world before I embarked on the research would dismiss several years of my own learning. Doing that would not give due credit to the Solomon Islanders and Bougainvilleans whose views, insights and lessons have shaped how I see the world and the contribution I hope this book makes.

I would add that from within interpretivist research the acknowledgement that I am one of the historical actors involved in producing the research demands ongoing interrogation of how my background and assumptions have influenced the many decisions I made as I designed, conducted and wrote it.